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What does the OVTA do?

The OVTA's mission is to Protect, Preserve and Interpret the route of the Campaign to the Battle of Kings Mountain

What is the OVTA?

The Overmountain Victory Trail Association was formed in 1975 to gain recognition for the route the Overmountain men took to the Battle of King's Mountain South Carolina.

On September 25, 1780, over 1,000 men "mustered" at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River in current day Elizabethton, TN. From there, they crossed the high mountains and dropped into the Piedmont of North Carolina pursuing Major Patrick Ferguson and his Tory Army.

They finally caught them on the afternoon of October 7th atop King's Mountain, in South Carolina. When the battle ended every Tory soldier had been killed or captured. The battle became known as the turning point of the Revolutionary War.

In 1980, President Carter recognized the historical significance of the Campaign to King's Mountain by signing a law designating the historical route the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail; the first National Historic Trail in the eastern United States.

Who is the OVTA?The Overmountain Victory Trail Association wgain recognition for the route the Overmountain men took to the Battle of King's Mountain South

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Historic Burke

Abingdon, VA

Monday, October 5, 2009

9-27-09 Carver Gap/Roan Mt Hike

Well, we just got through programming some 300 students in Polk County, NC. Due to the weather we had to go into the school and do our programming instead of hiking down to Alexanders Ford. I will have a post on this soon with pictures.

September 27, 2009: Well due to bad weather on the mountain we split our forces with some of us going up to Yellow Mountain gap from the NC side and seeing if we could get up to the balds where the Patriot Militia mustered on this date in 1780. The Militia encountered snow "shoe mouth deep" on top of the mountain. They also realized that they had 2 deserters that had left them to warn Maj. Patrick Ferguson that the Patriot Militia was in pursuit. The others took the trail more travelled and went up to Carver's Gap. This is about 4 miles from Yellow Mountain Gap, therefore off of the OVNHT but it is a bit safer for those that chose this route. The pictures below show some of the sites at Carver's Gap:

The annual OVTA group shot at the visitors center at Roan Mountain State Park. This not the whole group, some of the others were off site.

The trek up Carver's gap begins in the parking area at the gap. This is Sarah and our youngest recruit, Reece. As you can see we are dressed warmly as you never know what the weather will do at these altitudes.

We proceed up the mountain

Note the clouds and mist in the background. It is also very breezy At an overlook we spot Tories on the horizon

Reece is on top of the world

We return to base camp to find that the group that took the historic route had a great and safe time. We all came back together and headed down the trail. In 1780 the Patriot Militia camped on the North Carolina side of the Roan Mountain. We travelled on down to camp at Riverside Elementary School and to get ready for our hike, with some 500 plus students, to the grave of Robert Sevier on Monday morning.